Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall sold to retail management company

City officials vow to work with new owner

Tony Kindelspire, The Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
02/06/2012 12:32:15 PM MST

Updated:
02/07/2012 11:54:02 AM MST

NewMark Merrill Managing Director & Principal Allen Ginsborg is photographed at the Twin Peaks Mall. NewMark Merrill Mountain States has closed on the purchase of Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall for an undisclosed sale price, the company announced Monday. (Joshua Buck/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- NewMark Merrill Mountain States has closed on its purchase of Twin Peaks Mall. The company, which did not disclose the purchase price, said Monday that the deal was completed on Thursday.

Allen Ginsborg, NewMark Merrill Mountain States' managing director and principal, said he and his company believe Twin Peaks is a property ripe for rebirth.

"Longmont's got a great demographic -- we love the demographic that's there in Longmont, it's terrific," Ginsborg said Monday.

Built in 1985, Twin Peaks' fortunes have declined in recent years due to a combination of factors, including increased competition nearby and the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Panattoni, which bought Twin Peaks Mall in 2007 for $33.6 million, brought in NewMark Merrill to manage it and its other Longmont retail property, Harvest Junction, in October 2010.

The mall's current occupancy rate is around 50 percent, according to Ginsborg.

Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings last fall on the 75-acre, 650,000-square-foot mall, as its previous owner, Panattoni Development Co., owed $26.5 million.

A foreclosure sale announced for early January was repeatedly postponed while NewMark Merrill worked out details of the purchase with Panattoni and the bank.

For the past couple of months, a purchase agreement with Bank of America has limited Ginsborg's communications with current and prospective tenants. But now that the sale has closed, his company is wasting no time: He's already personally visited every merchant he could, and his company started contacting potential new tenants on Friday, the day after the sale closed, he said.

In its announcement of the purchase, NewMark Merrill said its redevelopment plan will include a complete re-branding of the center and will cost between $25 million and $50 million. However, no firm plans currently exist. They will be developed in the coming weeks and months, Ginsborg said.

"Some of that is driven by what the community wants but most of that is driven by the retailers," Ginsborg said.

It's NewMark Merrill's goal to take a long-term approach toward redevelopment, and make changes that will serve the property well into the future. The company has decades of retail experience, he said.

"There's really no reason we can't recapture the ground that was lost," Ginsborg said.

City officials excited about sale

Brad Power, the city's economic development director, said he spoke with Ginsborg Monday morning and was excited to hear the sale finally went through.

"I think it is very positive that the company that acquired it has a track record in the development of retail," Power said. The city had been concerned that a foreclosure sale might have resulted in an owner/investor who had no interest in breathing new life into the retail center.

The city and the mall's previous owner, Panattoni, almost collaborated on a public-private redevelopment of the mall in 2008. Although that partnership never materialized, it led to the creation of an urban renewal plan for the site in 2009.

That plan needs to be updated, which will take about six months, Power said, but having the framework could speed the property's redevelopment.

"I think the message has been sent that the city is receptive to (a public-private partnership)," he said. "The (urban renewal authority) was set into place for a reason."

Given the reality of the commercial real estate market, a redevelopment of Twin Peaks would almost certainly come in phases, Power said.

Another reality facing NewMark Merrill is the continued weakness in the retail sector of the economy, Ginsborg said.

Sears has already announced it is closing more than 100 stores, including Twin Peaks, which leaves the mall with only two anchors: Dillard's, which owns its own building, and United Artists Theatres.

NewMark Merrill Mountain States has closed on the purchase of Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall for an undisclosed sale price, the company announced Monday.
(Joshua Buck/Times-Call File)

Ginsborg said he's been familiar with Longmont's retail market since working on the Home Depot development in the mid-1990s. The city's commitment to seeing Twin Peaks redeveloped was a major impetus in his company wanting to buy it.

Mayor Dennis Coombs learned of the sale's closing over the weekend, after he returned from a trip, he said Monday. He, councilman Gabe Santos, city manager Gordon Pedrow and Power have all had ongoing conversations with NewMark Merrill and he's excited to see the city and company develop a plan "where both parties can end up being winners," he said.

NewMark Merrill Companies is based in southern California but NewMark Merrill Mountain States is based in Fort Collins.

That division of the company owns and/or manages nearly 2 million square feet of retail in Colorado, including Arvada Marketplace, Waneka Marketplace in Lafayette, Broomfield Plaza, the Fort Collins Marketplace and Citadel Crossing in Colorado Springs. The company continues to manage Harvest Junction, which Panattoni still owns.

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at tkindelspire@times-call.com.

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story